


Remember this moment

by siojo



Series: Younger Luffy AU [11]
Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M, mentioned Gol D Roger, mentioned Portgas D Rouge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 07:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8319721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Standing here, where the most influential moment in his life occurred, Ace wishes that he looked more like his mom than that man.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I feel uncertain about this one, it's been rewritten a number of times and there's currently forty or so different ways this was going to go, but this one that felt most like it would fit. I hope you like it?

"We need to get rid of the Marine's attention," Jozu says calmly, his hands folded on the table, his voice thoughtful. "We need to have a reason to contact our allies and those we can trust to know where they will fall in this war."

  
Haruta nods, "But that's where it gets tricky, the Marines get nervous when we spend more than a few days talking to our allies, if we want to include Shanks and the others in this, not only do we have to check if they will help us, we have to coordinate everything between the fleet and whoever else gets roped into this."

  
"I have an idea," Ace admits, flinching as everyone turns to him. "You won't like it."

  
"Does it consist of you leaving and never coming back?" Marco asks sounding far too done with Ace's attempts to satisfy them all with promises that he would be gone by the next port. "Because I won't even listen to that plan."

  
Ace shifts uncomfortably, "Not exactly? I'm, I'm the reason for this, so what if I take a Mini Moby and a couple of the commanders and we spread a rumor that I stole them."

"What?"

  
"Well," Ace shrugs, "When Teach ran, we made calls and the Marines didn't seemed too worried about how often we were meeting with our allies, sure they watched us, but they let us talk to them and have meetings without getting antsy. We had an entire attack plan set up before he joined the Shichibukai and they started getting concerned again. If I take three commanders and take off, fight a few Marine bases, catch attention, meanwhile Pops claims that I stole all that and more for him?"

  
Whitebeard looks thoughtful, his sake jug tapping against the table, "It would garner attention and the Marines might be willing to let us weaken you before swooping in. A perfect way for them to claim that they captured you without bloodshed on their end."

  
"Who does he take," Vista demands.

  
Marco raises an eyebrow, "He's not leaving this ship without me," His eyes narrow at the look that Jiro shoots him. "You would find it best not to argue that point."

  
"No," Jiro promises. "Not that, I think you are a good choice. Think about it, Portgas D Ace stole the First Division commander, Whitebeard's most loyal, it's the perfect set up for what we're trying to create here. Who else though?"

  
"I'll go," Namur volunteers.

  
"No way, do you know what they'll do to you if you leave Pops? They're already trying to treat Fishmen poorly, you can't-"

  
"We're family," Namur interrupts him, arms crossed on the table top. "I can. Besides, you need someone who can save you both when you fall into the ocean."

  
It devolves from there, the argument over who's going to escort Marco and Ace loud and furious. Getting progressively meaner until Whitebeard finally settles the matter.

"Izo and Thatch," He says firmly. "Marco interacts publicly more with Thatch then he does any other member of the crew, if we don't send him then it'll be seen as suspicious." Thatch grins, raising a fist for Ace to bump against his own. "The latest rumor," Whitebeard continues, glancing to Haruta for confirmation. "Says that Izo and Thatch are inseparable, is that correct?"

  
"Yeah," Haruta scowls. "And we can't send anyone else," She pouts like she lost out on something important. "But Pops!"

  
Whitebeard shakes his head, "No. We can't afford to have more of you away from the Moby. As it is, we're going to be down four division commanders to make this work," He glances around the table. "Do you have anymore to add, Ace?"

  
"I want to tell our allies who he is," Ace says, squeezing Marco's hand. "However we can arrange it, I think they deserve to hear it from me."

  
"If that is what you want, son."

  
"Thanks Pops."

 

~

 

"Your mom liked them lighter," Ace remembers Garp telling him once, after he had tumbled through the bushes during one of their training exercises and popped back up with half a dozen hibiscus flowers tangled into his hair. "Her sister, your Aunt Rose, likes the darker colored ones, but they both use to wear them."

  
"Wear them?"

  
Garp had laughed and patted the ground beside him and spent the rest of the day teaching Ace how to twist braids into his hair and how to get the flower stems into them to make sure that it didn't fall out-of-place.

  
Staring at the hibiscus that he's been twirling between his fingers, Ace can't help but remember that day, the only time that Garp had ever spoken at length about his mother or her sister, but he shoves the memory to the side, refocusing on the plan. Everything had to be done just so to ensure that it would be broadcasted properly and they only had one chance to do it correctly.

  
"You're doing it wrong," Ace starts, turning to find Garp leaning against the wall of the building behind him. "I know I taught you how to do this." Garp snatches the flower from his grasp, tucking it into place and creating an easily hidden braid to secure the stem in. "There, now you look more like your mother," He nods before slamming a fist onto the top of Ace's head. "What do you think you're doing, brat!"

  
"Shitty geezer!" Ace shouts back, hands going to his head, "What was that for?"

  
"What was," Garp sputters. "I raised you to be a great Marine! How dare you run off and become a pirate! And taking your cute little brother!"

  
"Fuck you, Luffy is better off with me then he would have ever been back on Dawn! At least with me, he won't be alone in a forest for _ten years_!"

  
Garp flinches back as if he's been struck and Ace feels guilty for all of a moment before shoving it hurriedly to the side as Garp straightens, obviously ready for another round of arguing.

  
It doesn't happen.

  
"Is there a problem here?" Ace barely catches a glance of the new Marine, unlit cigar in his mouth, before he's laying over one of Garp's arms and staring at the overly long coat that Garp refused to actually wear. "Sir, what are you doing to that man?"

  
"Sorry for the disturbance, Captain," Garp says as Ace starts to shift, trying to escape, kicking his feet to try and gain leverage. "I was just upset with my grandson, I'll be taking the brat to finish this elsewhere."

  
Ace can't see the Captain, but he can hear him and the suspicious tone coloring his voice as he responds, "Of course, sir."

  
Garp keeps hold of Ace, taking them down a winding path of nothing, since all Ace can see are the shifting shadows through the coat blocking his sight. He can't risk burning a hole in it to see and he can't escape. Finally, Garp drops him into a chair.

  
"What are you doing, you brat?" Garp demands, arms crossing over his chest. "Your whole crew's been pretty quiet for years and then all of a sudden, you're stealing three of Whitebeard's men and one of his ships to cause havoc in East Blue. What did you get yourself and my other grandson into?"

  
"Why should I tell you?" Ace scowls. "You're a _Marine Vice Admiral,_ for all I know this is you capturing me to be executed!"

  
"So you know we're hunting you," Garp sighs, sitting heavily on the bed he had been standing in front of. Ace wonders why Garp brought them to an inn, but shoves it to the side. "How long?"

  
Ace shrugs, "Ray and Shakky told me the moment that they knew, so probably pretty soon after the Marines decided to start the search back up."

  
"So you went to piss off a Yonko?"

  
"Why should I tell you?"

  
Garp glances at the brat, who looks far too much like his father for his own good, even for all the features that he shares with his mother, "Sengoku knows about you, has for years," Garp says finally, slumping in on himself. "I wanted to brag about my grandson and Sen is smart, besides, Portgas isn't a common name." Garp shrugs. "Sen helped me cover it up, helped me hide you, but Blackbeard went to Akainu and he went above Sen. I'm currently under investigation for hiding you, even turning you in wouldn't do much to keep me out of trouble."

  
"What?"

  
"A man likes to brag about his grandsons."

  
"We aren't even related!"

  
"Of course we are," Garp says in confusion. "Next you're going to say that you aren't related to Luffy."

  
Ace rolls his eyes, arms crossing, "Right, because Aunt Rose marrying Dragon means we're related. Dragon doesn't even care about his own son, let alone his nephew, why should you?"

  
"Because you're my grandson," Garp repeats like it's important.

  
"You won't tell anyone?"

  
Garp tilts his head to the side, the same move that Luffy uses when he's thinking hard, "I'll probably tell Sen, but he's already going to be in trouble for his own pirate grandson, what with how thoroughly they're investigating us all."

  
"I don't want to know," Ace states finally. "I didn't piss off one of the Yonko."

  
"Whitebeard is contacting his allies to come after your head!"

  
"Pops isn't after me," Ace grins at the look of confusion that crosses Garp's face. "We found out that you were after me and Pops needed a way to contact our allies to gauge how receptive they would be to helping, so we made up the theft. Pops helped us plan it."

  
"And Lougetown?"

  
Ace shrugs, glancing away from Garp, "You can find out with everyone else," he says standing up and arranging his hat back on his head, careful not to crush the flower. "I have to go."

  
"Stay safe," Garp says before Ace can close the door. "I won't help you escape if you get captured."

  
"I won't be," Ace promises, closing the door behind him.

  
Garp sighs, "He really is too much like his father, Rouge. You and Rose were always smarter than this."

 

~

 

This is where his life started, Ace thinks the moment he catches sight of the execution platform, this spot was where the single most defining moment of Ace's life took place, and he hadn't even been alive to witness it. At the top of that platform, that man had started the new Age of Pirates, and the hunt for anyone that might have the misfortune of being his child.

  
"You don't have to do this," Marco says softly, one of his hands holding tight to one of Ace's as they stand just feet away from the mouth of the alleyway that leads to the platform. "We can think of another way to do this, it doesn't have to be here."

  
Ace shakes his head, "Thanks Marco, but if I'm going to do this, this," He gestures at the square bustling with people. "is the best place to do it. The only place better would be Raftel and Luffy would never forgive us for declaring Pops as King."

  
"He wouldn't," Marco agrees. "But I wanted you to know that. That if you decide that you can't do it, that I will support you, no matter what your choice is."

  
"You really are a softy," Ace says grinning stiltedly at the affronted look on Marco's face. "Thank you, really, but I'm going to do this."

  
Thatch interrupts them, a tiny Denden on his shoulder, "Izo's set up whenever you are ready."

  
Ace nods, "Alright." He takes a step and stops when Marco tugs his hand, "What?"

  
"I love you."

  
"You," Ace sputters, cheeks flaring red, barely keeping from pulling his hat to hide his face. "I love you too, you stupid bird."

  
Ace can hear Thatch laughing as he slips into the crowd and to the barely there barrier between the people and the platform, heart thundering in his chest. He stops short, hand on the barrier rope as he stares up at it, biting the inside of his cheek as he does.

  
This is it. This is the spot where they killed that man.

  
Ace lifts the rope and steps under, working hard to make sure that he doesn't run up the steps, counting each one as he goes. The exact path that that man had willingly taken to his own death.

  
He's halfway up before anyone notices him, his footsteps echoing as the crowd starts to whisper, almost silent, as they take note of him, silence starting to spread.  
"Hey!" A Marine shouts as Ace steps onto the platform, a chill running down his spine. "You shouldn't be up there!"

  
This is where Gol D Roger died. Ace has known that his whole life, had thought of it the entire way up to the platform, but now, standing in the very spot where he lost his head, it seems almost surreal. He tips his hat back slightly, to get a better view of the people that have stopped what they are doing to watch him, to get an idea of the last thing that man would have seen before his death.

  
Marco's face isn't visible at this distance but Ace focuses on Marco anyway, spotting Sabo's top hat out the corner of his eye. He doesn't look over at him, but Ace is grateful that he came, even if it means that Sabo disobeyed Dragon's orders to stay out of the situation for the time being.

  
"Get down this instant!"

  
"Twenty-one years ago," Ace says, voice becoming steadier as he speaks, carrying over the sudden, complete silence. "Gol D Roger was brought here to be executed and he said that he left everything that he owned in One Piece, but that wasn't entirely true." His hands clench into fists and his mouth feels dry. "At the time of his death, there was in fact something that he owned on the island of Baterilla. The heart of a woman named Portgas D Rouge and she was his wife."

  
Ace takes a moment, a long moment, trying to pretend that he's once more seated in the meeting room on the Moby, telling his family everything, trying to do better than his stumbling mess of a story from last time.

  
"She was an amazing woman and she was pregnant. For the safety of her son, Rouge did something impossible, extending her pregnancy so that their son would live, and so a year and three months after her husband's execution, Rogue gave birth to their son and she died."

  
Ace can see the worry, the horror painted on the faces of those closest to where he is standing, but he pushes on, "My name is Portgas D Ace, the son of the Pirate King and Portgas D Rouge, and I dare you to come and get me."


End file.
